I wonder. You know, I just bet we shoulda turned left at Albuquerque! And then maybe a right turn at La Jolla. Hmm, er–well, we can’t be too far off….

Bugs Bunny, “Ali Baba Bunny”

After a short rant about getting lost in Albuquerque (I should have turned left…), I set out on what should have been the final leg of my journey: across the high deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and California to Los Angeles, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Dude! How awesome would that be, a Route 66 mug? Maybe they could put your picture on it since you’re doing the whole ‘epic road trip’ thing! I could sell it to people and say, ‘Yeah, I know that guy. I served him his coffee.’

Barista at Starbucks in Amarillo, TX

After a quick break in Oklahoma City to cool off and have lunch (the temperature was at least 100 and the sun was relentless out over the plains which may or may not have contributed to the sudden madness at the end of the last part), I was back on the road. Western Oklahoma was an orchard of windmill generators lining the crests of any slight knolls that ran the length of I-40. I never knew the sheer size of these things until I saw them up close, and they are massive. As another Deep South/California transplant would say, “Wouldja LO’OK at THA-YAT?!? That’s uhMAYzin’!”